Author Posts – Page 8 – Mountain Brook Ink

[Dana McNeely] How to Handle a Drought

Nov 19, 2020Alyssa RoatAuthor Posts, Dana McNeely, Devotional, Encouragement, Historical Sidenotes, Story Behind the StoryAhab, Drought, Elijah, Obadiah, trust

The specter of death walked the land of Israel. After three years without rain, streams ran dry and wells became mud. Crops failed and food supplies dwindled. The effects of the drought gripped nearly everyone, from the poorest laborer to the king and queen in their palace. But in Zarephath, a Canaanite city far away,…

[Jeanette-Marie Mirich] Bread of Heaven

Nov 12, 2020Alyssa RoatAuthor Posts, Devotional, Jeanette-Marie Mirichbaking, Holiness, Leaven, Unleavened Bread, Yeast

The yeasty scent of bread fresh from the oven fills my daughter’s kitchen. It turns my thoughts back to 2012 when my granddaughter Anneliese and I baked biscuits but had to make sour milk with vinegar. We watched bubbles rise and expand, and marveled as they created foam on the surface of the liquid. Five-year-old…

[Sara Davison] Great Expectations

Nov 10, 2020Alyssa RoatAuthor Posts, Devotional, Encouragement, Sara DavisonA Star Will Rise, Future, God's plan, Security, Trusting God

It can be incredibly easy for us as humans to think we know exactly what God’s plans are for our lives. But what do we do when the plans we were so sure were God’s don’t come to fruition? I recently contributed a story to the Christmas anthology, A Star Will Rise. The theme of…

[Melanie Campbell] Book Baby Side Effects

Nov 3, 2020Alyssa Roat2 CommentsMelanie Campbell, Story Behind the Storybook baby, one way home, Whispers of Grace, writing process

Authors often refer to their novels as a “Book Baby.” The term is fitting. A completed novel and a baby share many of the same qualities. Like children, each one is different. And like pregnancy, each book’s journey to completion has its own unique story. Mother’s often talk about how with one pregnancy they were…

[Susan Kimmel Wright] A Special Autumn Recipe

Oct 13, 2020Alyssa Roat2 CommentsAuthor Posts, Crafts & Fun, Personal Stories, Susan Kimmel Wrightautumn, cookies, fall, molasses, recipes

“There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood…” Every week my fourth-grade teacher passed out our poetry sheets, printed in fragrant purple, from the mimeograph machine. Though I disliked memorization, many of the poems, like this one—”A Vagabond Song” by Bliss Carman—have stuck with me for years. I particularly loved the…

[Sara Davison] Putting the A back into ACTS

Oct 8, 2020Alyssa Roat1 CommentAuthor Posts, Devotional, Encouragement, Sara DavisonAdoration, Glory of God, Praise, Prayer, Psalm 136

Since the pandemic began, I have been more intentional than ever about carving out time for prayer and reading the Bible every morning. I have found this quiet time to be the most effective weapon against fear, uncertainty, and anxiety. Recently, though, I started to examine how I was praying. Too often, I rushed into…

[Melanie Campbell] Wildfires and Clouded Vision

Oct 6, 2020Alyssa Roat1 CommentAuthor Posts, Devotional, Encouragement, Melanie Campbell, Personal StoriesClouded Vision, Fog, Seeing Clearly, Smoke, Trusting God, Wildfire

A few weeks ago, my town was blanketed with thick smoke and covered with ash. Wildfires were dangerously close and people in nearby areas had to be evacuated from their homes. There were reports of arsonists setting other fires. It was chaos, doom and gloom. In other words, another page in the nail-biting saga of…

[Sara Davison] Salt and Light

Sep 24, 2020Alyssa RoatAuthor Posts, Devotional, Encouragement, Personal Stories, Sara DavisonImitating Christ, Salt and Light, Witness

It was definitely a dilemma. Twenty or thirty cars pouring out of a church parking lot and being stopped on a side street where the only exit was blocked by trucks and bulldozers. Other than retreating into the parking lot—and that opportunity quickly closed—we had nowhere to go. And no one working at the site…

[Richard Spillman] The Call to Be Like Jesus

Sep 22, 2020Alyssa RoatAuthor Posts, Devotional, Richard SpillmanFollowing Jesus, godly living, Life of Christ

Being like Jesus is a tall order, requiring a special commitment, but it is the ultimate fulfillment of the gospel. It begins with an encounter with Jesus. We must know Him before we can become like Him. It requires more than an examination of what Jesus did. We need an introduction to the one who…

[Dana McNeely] An Intersection of Time and Eternity

Sep 17, 2020Alyssa RoatAuthor Posts, Dana McNeely, Devotional, Encouragement, Story Behind the StoryElijah, God's Providence, The Widow of Zarephath, Trusting God

Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” ~ 1 Kings 17:17-19 (NIV) After…